Barmy Army abuse inspired me to skittle out England, says Johnson

Aussie pace hero Mitchell Johnson woke up to 'Magic Johnson' headlines following his brilliant spell of six for 38. Then he revealed he was driven to produce it to prove England supporters wrong after they mocked him for his Lord's horror show in 2009.

He said: 'It was a dreadful time for me . Everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong.

'I couldn't shut out the personal issues. I felt the pressure of it all weighing down on me. And the crowd got to me. Usually you can block them out but they were pretty boisterous, revelling in my problems and that was unsettling me.

Magic Johnson: The Aussie was almost unplayable in England's first
innings

'I could hear them laughing and jeering and that just made things worse. Let's be honest, everyone could see it. I bowled rubbish at times.

'I just couldn't control what was happening. To be honest, the way I bowled at Lord's I just wanted to get off the field and disappear.

'It was very embarrassing to play that badly. There is no hiding place, you are stuck out there with nowhere to go and it can be torture. I just kept thinking: "where's my game gone?"

'I kept thinking about my bowling action. I wanted to change it but I didn't know what to do. My technique disappeared. I lost confidence and then it all went wrong.'

Nowhere to hide: England supporters in the Barmy Army targeted Johnson after his dud performance in the Lord's Test of the 2009 series

Although Johnson recovered to take 20 wickets in the series and his fragile confidence had recovered sufficiently for him to announce he was going to bounce England to death before the start of this rematch, he was dropped after his dreadful start in Brisbane.

Mitch on the match

Mitchell Johnson needs three wickets to become the fourth person to score 50 and take 10 wickets in a Test.

Alan Davidson (Aus)

Dec 1960 v West Indies (Brisbane) 124 runs 11 wickets

Ian Botham (Eng)

Feb 1980 v India (Mumbai) 114 runs, 13 wickets

Imran Khan (Pak)

Jan 1983 v India (Faisalabad) 117 runs, 11 wickets

There he finished with no wickets, no runs and a howler of a drop from
Andrew Strauss. But after remedial work with bowling coach Troy Cooley,
he returned to produce a series-changing performance.

And now? 'I do feel I have unfinished business with England and their supporters. I'm getting tired of watching England celebrate,' he says.

'At the end of the series at The Oval, Ricky Ponting told us all to get out of the changing room and watch the England boys celebrate.

'He wanted us to feel the pain. I stood there watching Strauss and the rest of the team lift the Ashes and I tell you it was heartbreaking.

'I don't ever want to go through that again. It was horrible. I felt sick. But it was good to stand there and watch as it makes you more determined not to be in the same position next time.'